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Thursday, January 05, 2006

Bob Lanier's Impact Felt On And Off The Court

It is easy to focus on negative stories--as the cliche goes, "If it bleeds, it leads." Crimes and wrongdoings committed by high profile athletes are newsworthy, but positive stories are equally worthy of attention. Why does it seem like we hear more about superstars having out of wedlock kids than we do about the students who receive educations as a result of multi-million dollar charitable donations by David Robinson (to cite just one example out of many)?

Bob Lanier averaged more than 20 ppg and 10 rpg during his Hall of Fame career, but his lasting legacy will be the lives that he has impacted around the world. Lanier serves as a special assistant to Commissioner David Stern in charge of the NBA's Team-Up community service programs. Hoopshype.com has just published my profile of Lanier (9/21/15 edit: the link to HoopsHype.com no longer works, so I have posted the original article below):

Although Bob Lanier is a Hall of Famer, it is easy to overlook his career. He did not play
on a championship team, his game was not flashy and he retired before
the NBA became the global, multimedia product that it is today. Some
fans may remember him more for his famously large sneakers than for his
accomplishments as a player. That is most unfortunate, because Lanier
had tremendous impact during his playing days--and even greater impact
since his retirement.

Lanier averaged 27.6 ppg, 15.7 rpg and shot .576 from the field while leading
St. Bonaventure University to a 65-12 record in his three varsity
seasons, including two NCAA Tournament appearances. During his senior
year in 1970, St. Bonaventure stormed to a 22-1 record in the regular
season and a third place ranking in the final AP regular season poll.
The Bonnies had an excellent chance to end UCLA's streak of NCAA
championships until Lanier suffered a devastating knee injury in a 97-74
victory over Villanova in the East Regional Final. Playing without
their star center, St. Bonaventure lost 91-83 to Artis Gilmore's Jacksonville Dolphins in the Final Four.

Lanier was still recuperating when the Detroit Pistons made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 1970 NBA Draft. He did not miss a
single game in his rookie season, but Lanier thinks that his haste to
return to action may have set him up for future problems.

"In hindsight," Lanier says, "what we should have done--if I had had any
sense and if there was some sophistication with the powers that be way
back then in Detroit--is have me sit out the first half of the season,
at least, and just worked on getting my knee right, getting the swelling
down, strengthening it up. But rehab wasn't as sophisticated then and
there was so much pressure to get Bob Lanier out there playing--even on
one knee--because I was a No. 1 draft choice and because Detroit was a
fledgling team. I think, consequently, because of that I had so many
problems with my knees over the years because I started out my career
that way as opposed to really getting myself together."

On
March 19, 1971 he scored 40 points, setting a new franchise single game
scoring record for centers. Lanier averaged 15.6 ppg and 8.1 rpg and
made the All-Rookie Team. Detroit's 45-37 record was a 14-game
improvement over the previous season, but only good enough for last
place in the powerful Midwest Division. The Milwaukee Bucks, led by Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson, won the division title with a 66-16 mark en route to capturing the NBA title. For
the next seven seasons, Lanier never averaged less than 21.3 ppg or
11.3 rpg.

Blocked shots and steals were not recorded during his first
three years. In 1973-74, Lanier ranked fourth in the NBA with 3.05 bpg,
totaling 247 blocked shots. He also had 110 steals, a most impressive
display of quickness by a 6-11, 265-pound center; only 11 other players
in NBA/ABA history have had 200-plus blocked shots and 100-plus steals
in the same season. Lanier
showcased his playmaking abilities by averaging 4.2 apg that year and a
career-high 4.6 apg in 1974-75.

Lanier won the 1972 NBA-ABA All-Star
Game MVP Award, no small feat considering that luminaries such as Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, John Havlicek, Connie Hawkins, Julius Erving and Rick Barry participated in the second annual contest between the rival leagues. In
1974, he added the NBA All-Star Game MVP to his trophy collection.

Perhaps
the most interesting piece of hardware that Lanier won came from a
one-on-one contest that included many of the NBA’s greatest stars. "They brought us all to a high school gym somewhere," Lanier recalls. "I think that they figured that Pistol Pete
was going to win it. Vitalis was the sponsor and they made a deal with
Pistol to do the TV commercials for the event. But he didn't win; he got
knocked out just before the finals. Jo Jo (White)
and I ended up playing in the finals. Jo Jo and I kind of made a little
pact. I knew how quick Jo Jo was--he'd break your ankles if you didn't
watch out. So I said, 'Jo Jo, just don't embarrass me out here.' Man,
the cameras went on and Jo Jo took off--I think he made the first five
hoops. He would make a little fake and when I got too close to him then
he would drive around me. After about the third shot he made I'm saying,
'Jo Jo, come on man, slow down, slow down.' I'm begging him. He served
me a couple more after that and then he missed. I said to myself, 'OK,
I'm going to just rock him to sleep now.' I wasn't just big and slow; I
was fairly quick for a big guy and I could shoot the outside jump shot. I
think that within the 17-foot range I could shoot as well as anyone who
ever played. I wasn't worried once he missed, because it was make it,
take it. If you made a shot you didn't have to give the ball back. So
when he missed I rocked him a little bit with some quick back down moves
and short shots until I got within range. Once the score was close
again, I shot some jumpers."

Lanier
still remembers the scene after he defeated White to earn the crown as
the NBA's best one-on-one player: "They gave me a Vitalis trophy and a
satchel that contained about $15,000. I remember unzipping it and
pretending that I was tossing the money out to the fans."

Lanier
did not just excel in All-Star games and the one-on-one contest. He
twice finished in the top five in regular season MVP balloting (third in
1974 behind Jabbar and Bob McAdoo, fourth in 1977 behind Jabbar, Bill Walton
and Pete Maravich), but there were always two centers ahead of him, so
he never made the All-NBA team. This is somewhat reminiscent of Hal Greer, the great Sixers guard who made the Hall of Fame and the 50 Greatest Players List but
never made the All-NBA 1st Team because he played at the same time as
Oscar Robertson and Jerry West

Lanier holds the Pistons franchise record with 20 games of 40-plus points, including a career-high 48 in a 120-116 victory over Portland on November 28, 1972. Lanier's 33 rebounds on December 22, 1972 versus Seattle stood as a team record until Dennis Rodman had 34 rebounds versus Indiana in 1992.

He averaged 22.7 ppg and 11.8 rpg in a little over nine seasons as a
Piston. Detroit did not win a championship during Lanier's time with the
team, but he can hardly be blamed for this: he elevated his averages to
25.6 ppg and 13.8 ppg in his 22 playoff games as a Piston. Frustrated
by Detroit's postseason failures, Lanier requested a trade and on
February 11, 1980 the Pistons sent him to Milwaukee. The Bucks went 20-6
down the stretch after Lanier's arrival and finished first in the
Midwest Division. The defending champion Seattle SuperSonics defeated
Milwaukee in seven games in the Western Conference Semifinals, winning
the clinching game 98-94.

In 1980-81, Milwaukee moved to the Eastern Conference's Central Division.
The Bucks had a 226-112 record during Lanier's four full seasons with the team, winning the Central Division crown each year. They lost Eastern Conference Finals showdowns to Philadelphia in 1983 and Boston in 1984. Each of those teams won the NBA title.

"The bad thing was if we got past Philly we ran into Boston and if we got
past Boston we ran into Philly," Lanier says. "That was when Philly had a hell of a team with Julius, Moses and a couple great guards, Mo Cheeks and Andrew Toney. God bless America, was he tough, man. He would wear Sidney Moncrief out. He was really tough. Then if we got by them, shoot, we had to face three Hall of Famers--Robert Parish, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale--plus Dennis Johnson. Think about it--that's really tough."

Lanier retired after the 1984 season with career averages of 20.1 ppg and 10.1 rpg. Bob Lanier's basketball prowess does not define him as a human being. He is a special assistant to commissioner David Stern
in charge of the NBA's Team-Up community service programs, but Lanier's
devotion to helping others predates his involvement with the NBA.

"It started long before I was a player," he explains. "It happened in high
school and even prior to that because my mother got me to do things with
kids in the church. We would mentor and do clinics and stuff like that
with kids in the church. That's how all that got started. Then, when I
was in college, I used to go and help the Seneca Indian nation. They
gave me a beautiful Indian headdress with eagle feathers."

The Seneca also bestowed an Indian name upon Lanier ("he who leaves big
tracks") which superficially could refer to his imposing physique, but
on a deeper level reflects the impact that he had on their lives.

Lanier is proud that his example has inspired other NBA players to reach out and help others. "We have a lot of players who have foundations and who are doing some
really wonderful things in their communities around the country and I
dare say around the world," he says. "Dikembe Mutombo has given large amounts of time and money to people in Africa to build
hospitals and build places for young kids to have beds and showers and
washing machines. He has done a wonderful job. Stephon Marbury,
through his Starbury Foundation, has done a wonderful job for kids,
making a difference in communities. We have a bunch of guys who continue
to do great, great work, trying to make a difference in the world."

Lanier
laments that NBA players do not receive enough recognition for these
efforts: "It is unfortunate because I dare say that there is not a group
of young men who do more to make a difference around the world than NBA
players. I travel around the world with our 'Basketball Without
Borders' program in which our ambassadors of basketball run basketball
clinics. But we also talk to these players in different countries about
how to deal with life issues and tell them that they need to make it and
then reach back to help others to make it. That is truly important and
that is one of the things that we take very, very seriously in the NBA."

Bob Lanier did not achieve his dream of winning an NBA championship, but
his efforts are helping countless people to have better opportunities to
fulfill their dreams. It's hard to imagine a greater legacy than that.

1 Comments:

Great profile on #16, who was my hero as a kid growing up in Detroit. No big man ever had a more beautifully rounded offensive game than Lanier -- that silky left-handed hook rumbling across the lane, sweet outside shooting from either elbow or beyond, and a pump fake that set up a deceptively quick first step to the hoop.

His phenomenal shooting started at an early age, going back to a national "spot shot" title he won as a teen by hitting 23 out of 25 shots. I wish more people had seen him on the rare nights when he was healthy, and I wish he'd gained the title he deserved. But the competition was uniformly much tougher in those days.

What a time that was in the old Midwest Division! Jabbar in Milwaukee one night, Sam Lacey at KC on another, Clifford Ray in Chicago on the way home. Giants really walked the earth back then ...

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